Have your say: Careers advice needed to fix gap between aspirations and reality

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Reply 1

Clearing and Applications Advisor

Maybe the coalition government shouldn't have scrapped the connexions service and additional funding in 2010 :mad:

Reply 2

nulli tertius

Original post by PQ

Maybe the coalition government shouldn't have scrapped the connexions service and additional funding in 2010 :mad:

Connexions was no loss. As more and more children stayed on at school and college after 16, they looked round for things to do and ended up as the fifth wheel on many cars; youth offending, teenage pregnancy, young people’s mental health, young people signing on; where there were other organisations doing a better job at less cost.

They were also a relic of the past in carrying out the day job. Almost to the end the branch next to my office was still advertising vacancies on postcards like a 1930s Labour Exchange. Then finally there was a single postcard in the windows that just had a URL on it

Reply 3

Clearing and Applications Advisor

Original post by nulli tertius

Scrapping funding for trained careers advisers and replacing that responsibility with teachers doing it as an extra role is a loss. Teachers generally have a very limited experience of work outside degree > pgce > teaching (there are exceptions but they are in the minority). The sort of advice and guidance that is offered now is substantially poorer than was available in 2009 (not that it was ever perfect).

Reply 4

nulli tertius

Original post by PQ

I think that is a rose-tinted view of the past. Careers advice has always been poor and Connexions and local authority Careers Services before them never adjusted to a world where people didn’t enter the workforce at 16.

Reply 5

Fujoshi

Original post by tam13

Surely what jobs people have hopes, dreams and aspirations for are always going to be greater than what most people actually end up doing?

There's a quote from a roman statesman that "Times are bad. Children no longer obey their parents, and everyone is writing a book".
Seems that aspiring to the arts is a part of the human condition lol

(Not to mention that aspirations of going into arts/entertainment/sports aren't exactly supported or encouraged in most people anyway. Trying to crush (sorry "constructively challenge") such dreams to an even greater degree probably isn't going to work imo. Advice on back-up plans or playing up the creativity/benefits of other careers would probably be better idea)

(edited 4 years ago)

Reply 6

Joinedup

Art, culture, sport. Oh the high prestige high paying jobs...

Accomodation and catering... Oh the low pay, high insecurity jobs...

Reply 7

Mabey

You only live once, people will always try to achieve their dreams before trying to get more common jobs. Telling people to drop their aspirations and go for the less desirable fields won't work for the majority of students unless they have some serious pressure from family.